Today was the last day of our trip. We woke up late, packed all the schwag we bought over the last few days and all the dirty laundry, gathered all the electronics and checked in our bags at the hotel after signing out. We went to breakfast at the little mom&pop place we went to a few times during the week and then took the bus to the Palace of Fine Arts. The parkland around it is very nice. I don't have any pictures, as we didn't bring the camera along, so you'll have to take my word for it. The duck pond around it is really nice. I'm impressed with the amount of green spaces in this city. The exploratorium inside the POFA was fun, but lost it's appeal after a few hours. It's somewhat akin to the museum of technology in Ottawa – with tons of hands-on demonstrations of physical phenomena.
I had a bit of a scare, in that I was carrying my laptop in my backpack and didn't realize that I was walking around rather powerful electromagnets. I think I got off lucky in that everything seems to work fine. We decided to walk back towards the wharf, as it was a beautiful sunny day and the scenery was pleasant. We passed through another park, where a bunch of people were playing with their dogs. That's another thing I noticed from SF, people have pets and the town seems quite pet-friendly. It was still early, so we had a beer at Jack's, a bit of dinner at the restaurant next door and headed to the hotel to pick up our bags.
As I'm writing this, I'm sitting in the airport lounge, waiting for my flight. Passing through security is always an exercise in pain. The amount of electronics I carry, combined with keys, change, glasses, watch, pen, belt and friggin boots inevitably means that I beep through a metal detector. One of these days, I'll warrant a strip-search from a disgruntled customs nazi. So far, so good, but I'm still dreading the words: “sir, please come this way….SNAP!” We have a solid two hours to wait. It's always classic. You get there early, things go smoothly and you have too long to wait. Get there a bit late, and all hell breaks loose. Better to wait a bit, and we have free wireless internet, yay!
So, this is the inevitable retrospective on my vacation. I achieved two goals out of three. I had fun, I relaxed, but I didn't get kissed on new year's eve. I did not meet the girl of my dreams in the hotel bar. Hyde_grrl, I'm sorry to say, my trip was quite boring by your standards. I did however discover a new city, and found that I did leave part of my heart in San Francisco. It's a lovely town, with interesting people and cozy spots. I could see myself living here if prices weren't so exorbitant and it wasn't filled with FDAs. Truth be told though, I'm looking forward to going home. I'm tired, my back hurts, and I can't wait to eat healthier food. That's the aspect that I least enjoyed of my trip: my friggin dietary restrictions. This is a city that loves its food, and I would dearly have loved to participate. Can't do much about that though, and bitching is no use, but still, sometimes, you can't help but gripe a bit.
Finally, gentle readers, I'm signing off for the next little while. Between jet lag, air travel and forecasted lack of sleep, I'm going to be out of it for the next little while. Toodles to all of you. I'll be in back in town in less than 12 hours, barring any unforeseen events.
Bye now, can't wait to see you, my friends.